Creating Firefly-Compatible Ships & Tech

POSTED BY: Tetracanth
UPDATED: Thursday, June 30, 2005 04:13
VIEWED: 2357
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TETRACANTH

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 8:11 PM

I'm creating effects for a Fan Film, and that may include a ship design. How developed is the tech background for Firefly? I know there are fans of Star Trek that have developed that series' technical rules to a truly frightening level of detail, but I realize that Firefly has a different tone. So, aside from the one-sentence stuff in this site's glossary, is there any "offical" technical knowledge about the Firefly 'verse?

In particular:
- What kind of concessions are made to make a ship atmosphere-capable? Serenity isn't the most streamlined vessel ever, and has no lifting surfaces to speak of. (Those stub wings are not airfoils) In the premiere ep. you see what looks like Alliance Cruisers hovering above the ground... I guess if a Firefly has artificial gravity, it can have antigravity too...

- Beyond being yellow and shiny, what is known about Firefly-verse Stardrives? They spend a goodly amount of time at sublight speeds in "Out of Gas", and overall, the faster-than-light issue is quite diligently avoided. Anyone know anything about it?

So, does anyone keep track of this stuff? How careful are we about this kind of thing?

Cheers
- tetracanth

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 9:05 PM

Select to view spoiler:

The movies explains all of firefly takes place inside one solar system so you don't need to worry about FTL travel.

CYBERSNARK

Thursday, June 30, 2005 3:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tetracanth:
- What kind of concessions are made to make a ship atmosphere-capable? Serenity isn't the most streamlined vessel ever, and has no lifting surfaces to speak of. (Those stub wings are not airfoils) In the premiere ep. you see what looks like Alliance Cruisers hovering above the ground... I guess if a Firefly has artificial gravity, it can have antigravity too...

Yeah, antigrav and artigrav tend to be opposite sides of the same coin, so it makes sense that they'd have it. Everything we've seen of Serenity in goo(*) suggests that she's built mainly for the brute-force approach --no forcefields or anything to create a lift-surface (as Star Trek ships have).

* "Goo" = in-atmosphere flying of exo-atmospheric craft for you non-spacer types. So said because the ship handles as though you're trying to wade through slime.

Quote:

- Beyond being yellow and shiny, what is known about Firefly-verse Stardrives? They spend a goodly amount of time at sublight speeds in "Out of Gas", and overall, the faster-than-light issue is quite diligently avoided. Anyone know anything about it?

So, does anyone keep track of this stuff? How careful are we about this kind of thing?

FTL questions make Joss cry, so most've us just tend to ignore the issue. Feel free to require a specialized "really fast" engine for bigger ships though (otherwise "Out of Gas" wouldn't have been a problem; just take a shuttle to Ariel, grab the parts you need, and bring 'em back lickety-split).

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

GUNRUNNER

Thursday, June 30, 2005 4:13 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Tetracanth:
- What kind of concessions are made to make a ship atmosphere-capable? Serenity isn't the most streamlined vessel ever, and has no lifting surfaces to speak of. (Those stub wings are not airfoils) In the premiere ep. you see what looks like Alliance Cruisers hovering above the ground... I guess if a Firefly has artificial gravity, it can have antigravity too...

For atmospheric flight she uses only thrust vectoring from the pivoting engines, like a V-22 with out wings.

Quote:
- Beyond being yellow and shiny, what is known about Firefly-verse Stardrives? They spend a goodly amount of time at sublight speeds in "Out of Gas", and overall, the faster-than-light issue is quite diligently avoided. Anyone know anything about it?

In the bonus features on the DVD its said her big spinney oil slick making engine is a Fusion Drive (a nuclear explosion to create thrust).

EV Nova Firefly mod Message Board:
http://s4.invisionfree.com/GunRunner/index.php?act=idx